Ex-prison officer who helped convicted murderer and ex-lover escape prison has been spared jail
27 September 2022, 12:11
An ex-prison officer who started a relationship with a convicted murderer before helping him escape prison has been spared jail.
Derby Crown Court heard how Jane Archer, 55, met her partner Stephen Archer at the gates of HMP Sudbury, a category D men’s prison, then drove him back to her home where they stayed the night.
They are not married, but she changed her name to his after their relationship began when she left the prison service.
The next day she drove him to Folkestone and the Dover area where they stayed in a Primer Inn.
She got him a new phone from Argos and drove back up north, letting him lay low for nine days.
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It was only when the pair travelled back to the north on the M6 that police stopped them and arrested them.
She maintains the plan was to drive him back to Manchester where he would hand himself in. The hope being that he would end up in another prison, closer to his family home.
Handing her an 18-month jail term, suspended for 18-months, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “Helping somebody escape from prison, in whatever format, is a serious offence.
“It is more serious in your case because you worked in the prison system and you knew how it worked.”
Mitigating, her lawyer said she felt ‘manipulated and emotionally blackmailed’ and regrets what she did.
Stephen Archer was jailed for life in 1995 after he was convicted of murder and he met the defendant when he was serving time at Category C prison HMP Ranby.
As part of her suspended sentence she must carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation sessions with the probation service.
